Graveyard Keeper 2 is almost here. Preorders are now live across its launch platforms, and at the time of writing, the game is roughly five hours away from unlocking.
Lazy Bear Games is returning to its wonderfully grim cemetery-management series eight years after the original Graveyard Keeper. The sequel launches September 22 on PC through Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG, alongside PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
The first game sold more than four million copies, so clearly there is an audience for digging graves, harvesting corpses, running questionable businesses, and generally making the most of medieval misery. The sequel keeps all of that and piles on a lot more.
Graveyard keeping is only part of the job now
The basic routine should feel familiar. Players still manage a cemetery, gather resources, craft equipment, trade, fish, and work through the Technology Tree. The world around it is much bigger now. Eight years have also passed in-game, and the Town that sat mostly out of reach in the original is finally open for business. New villages, forests, swamps, churches, graveyards, and other areas fill out the expanded map.
Lazy Bear is also leaning much further into automation. Zombies can handle production jobs, conveyor-belt factories are now a thing, and a new talent system joins the familiar progression setup. Milestones replace the old Teleportstone for fast travel, which should make getting around a little less painful.
There are a lot more zombies to deal with
Some zombies get to work for you. Roughly 4,000 others apparently need a more permanent solution. Combat is one of the sequel’s biggest additions. Large parts of the Town have been overrun, and taking them back means fighting directly through its streets. Some encounters throw waves of enemies at the player, while others involve pushing forward and capturing control points.
There is plenty of preparation involved too. Barricades and towers can defend territory, undead squads can be positioned around the battlefield, and the Keeper can personally lead them into a fight. Anyone planning to jump in on day one does not have much longer to wait. Graveyard Keeper 2 can be preordered now for 20% off on Steam.
